Many people have access to TEST PS3's, not just Sony employees. For example, reviewers sometimes have debug units to test pre-release code. This leak could have come from any number of sources outside of Sony and is nothing new - debug firmware has been leaked since the PS3 launched and a fat lot of good it did.

This is a HUGE step towards custom firmware! hes just telling you HE hasnt made any custom firmware from it yet. With this firmware they can tell how the 3.66 boots and runs, and what happened to lv2 ( playing games from backup )

i personally think it will only be a few weeks before 3.66 CFW comes out. The question is. Who is dumb enough to release it first!

Alright, so when did Sony screw over a customer this time? Please tell, fanboy. And how bout MS charging to play online when nobody else does. But that's not screwing your customers over right? It's funny cuz if i buy the same game for 360 or PS3 i gotta pay $60 more (or more even if i pay for their less than 1 yr deals) to get the whole game (the online half). So MS is essentially screwing me out of my online half, cuz i wont pay for it. But that's not screwing your customers over.

As I pointed out above, it's not just Sony employees that have access to these debug firmwares and the firmwares have been leaking since the PS3 launched - relax, it doesn't mean anything (at least not until someone figures out a way to install debug firmware onto a retail PS3).

@dantesparda..why bring ms into this. Can you please tell me what a sony fw debug kit getting released has todo with microsofts live pay service? Could it be you are trying to turn this into a fanboy war of sony vs ms? I fail to understand some peoples insecurities with a hunk of plastic. I understand your trying to defend against the guy trolling against sony but you are just as bad when you do it by trolling against micro. How about quit the trolling period.

Well, outside of some of the insolent dopes that posts here, others might actually WANT to be able to use a form of CFW for legal purposes (I know what people will ask. Please do something other that nerd rage with kneejerk reactions). They cannot understand why Sony is so against it (and why their rabid fanboys, who don't represent the majority of GAMERS, which those rabid fanboys have yet to prove they are), and I cannot blame them.

I cannot understand it, myself. Yeah, I know people are scared of people using it to cheat, but hasn't cheating BEEN going on with things like the Javelin glitch in COD:MW2?

I also know of the piracy argument, but seriously, are we going to suddenly pretend that piracy was invented with CFW? How we forget that piracy has been going on since the PS2 days, and people have yet to be able to completely squash it. It's just an excuse to screw legit buyers with draconian DRM that will lead to MORE piracy because people don't want to have to deal with such.

Are we REALLY that against anyone using CFW? Are you really going to crucify anyone that uses it and just throw labels around about something we don't know that much about? Are we really going to be THAT immature about it? Are we really going to be that much against anyone who ever says that we should be allowed to own what you buy?

I own a PS3. I play it. I like how Sony has done the unthinkable and rose it back from the grave after anti-trust-like antics from Microsoft. But I cannot understand why Sony is that much against it when this could actually extend the life of the console long after its official cycle is done. I'm not saying we should bring down PSN or enable piracy on the system, but when you have more of an open minded attitude towards these types of things, you extend the life of your console, and you extend your fanbase and reputation with said fanbase by telling them that you believe in innocent until proven guilty.

TL;DR: The majority of people that post on N4G are getting this completely backwards (READ it). And we're not arguing with people who are mature enough to discuss it without getting angry.

Most use CFW for piracy though. There was a difference about piracy back then and piracy now...people knew how to shut the fuck up about it. There also wasn't a fad dedicated to causing widespread annoyances on the internet for "lulz" back then either so most people were just pirating games for personal use, not going "HEY I JUST PIRATED THIS SHIT AND YOU SHOULD TOO. LOL NO GAMES RIGHT?"

Reply Edit: When did I say anything about Lulzsec? Those kinds of people have been around since 2005. Do you have Lulzsec on the brain or something.

I know they do because I seen people talk about it on various boards, basically bragging about doing it and encouraging that everybody does it too.

Holy crap man, how does all of this go under your nose? You've probably been to some of the same spots that have people doing this shit in the open, with links. You have got to be shitting me, sir.

How do you know that, though? Where were the many stories about all those games being pirated as a direct result of CFW being used? And how does lulsec fit into any of this? Geohot (who gets crucified here so much that I'm surprised a N4G user hasn't been reported as sending death threats to him yet) made the CFW. Lulzsec did not and went after people like the CIA for sport.

And I don't see the difference about piracy then and now because, unlike some of the dolts that post here, I understand the reasons why piracy exists. It's too high costs of software that covers nothing but pockets of those that don't deserve or need it, draconian DRM that punishes honest consumers and do nothing to actually stop what they say it will, and people wanting an easier and quicker way to be able to get things and would use a legal way to get said things if such a way existed. I understand all of those reasons, that have existed for the longest time, and I also understand that nothing about that has ever changed.

What you linked has nothing to do with one another.

And also, do you really think the companies really WANT piracy to end? That's the PERFECT reason for companies to GET support and excuses for such draconian DRM, for disallowing modding of their systems/games, and whatnot. If that reason is taken away, then they don't have a way to screw the honest consumer without having to come out and say that that's what they actually want to do.

Think about it: perhaps it's a planned leak by Sony to garner support for their side. Has anyone ever thought that Sony would WANT this story to be dragged on because the more it does, the more people will see it Sony's way when Sony's "way" is dead wrong?

Sony wasn't against people doing home dev programs on their PS3 other wise you'd never have OtherOS in the first place.

People didn't like how you could lunix and use some programs but then had to reboot the PS3 to get out of it to play a game.

So wanted to play games under OtherOS.

So when the last dev leak happened you had the USB dongle come out which doesn't let you run lunix and play games but it does let you copy games to a HD and run them.

Sony never intended for that to be done on the PS3 and have tried or nipped it in the bud right away.

CFW is the other way around to playing games on OPtherOS, it lets you run programs that aren't proper sony PS3 programs in the XMB.

And while SOny might not have had a problem with that, people are trying to screw that around so you can start up lunix under XMB and not have to worry about otheros at all.

The PS3 hackers aren't interested in CFW they are just wanting to make it extremely easy to run games from the HD in XMB.

Which is piracy and sony doesn't like that.

What I find odd is that you have people running around pirating stuff and they probably worked but if you said to these same people make these things and you tell them that you won't be paying the for the stuff made these same people will be angry about that, why? I don't know.

That's the major problem. People just want to pirate these days. They don't care about major potential that home brew has just look at the wii and look at all the innovative things home brew has brought to the wii xbox ps2 psp.

Its sad what its all come down to. Because homebrew gave some console extra bit life. Now its all about making most convenient way of piracy and forgetting about the other amazing things that can be done.

when u realize who the company need to tak emoney from other stuff ...like spot before the main title....of a game..or on the cover of the game.....would be nice for everyone no? im a musician and web developer and trust in me when i see a site payed 16 thousand of euro....lol ..i just laugh.........think at how much money take for a game...u guys think .....oh they r genius...oh they work a lots...no they r just rich..if the game sell good :)

u still young...one day u will understand why ppl hack stuff.......u grow up with this shit of close..console....u should learn how to write simple games in basic then in visual basic and then in c++ ...everything is gone hacked and yeah...im waiting for the next cfw (this dont mean that ill use it...but i hope the reach how do it)..this mean ...the programmers going better :D

pc gaming has been killed by consoles it pathetic learn how to use mouse and keybord for god sake get rid of gamepad support yall babys need to grow up real skilled gamer plays mmos and plays pc games with an mouse and keybord no hacking involved unlike console which is outdated minute it leaves store only to be replaced by new hardware 5 years later

the original reasons for cfw in the ps1 ps2 days was imports and homebrew....

imports are not needed now any ps3 can play any ps3 game most my games are region 1 iom in region 2.

hombrew is the dicy part thats where the problem is inorder to run software you must be able to bypass the security sony did try to give gamers and devs a chance with linux that trust was broken so the privledge was revoked

sony owns the software firmware and whatelse if custom firmwares made it has to use sonys code in it thats agaisnt the law

"hombrew is the dicy part thats where the problem is inorder to run software you must be able to bypass the security sony did try to give gamers and devs a chance with linux that trust was broken so the privledge was revoked "

Good God! When are we going to understand that the reason behind the Linux removal is up for debate? When are we going to stop taking everything a company says at face value?

Sony said that it was for security reasons, but we have reports that they might've took it out for a different reason, then lied to us about what the reason was because they knew that the blinded fanboys will accept their reason as the only reason and that they were justified because of the reason when it had nothing to do with what they said it was for. Okay, so someone found a security hole. Did that warrant an entire removal of a feature? Was that the only option that Sony had to use?

Then again, of COURSE we're going to believe it because Sony said so, and we take everything Sony said at face value. I'm sorry, but just because I enjoy what Sony has done for the game industry, and I love the system, that I have to agree with everything Sony ever does as a company! I don't know where that thought came into this.